This April 2020 FAA Report to Congress evaluates alternative noise metrics to the current Day-Night Level (DNL) 65 decibel standard used to measure community aircraft noise exposure, as required by the FAA Reauthorization Act of 2018. The report reviews the history and definitions of various noise measurement tools, explains why no single metric can address all aviation noise situations, and examines the roles of both noise modeling and actual noise sampling. It was produced in response to congressional direction to assess whether better methods exist for capturing and addressing community concerns about airplane noise.Open full document
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This FAA report to Congress responds to Section 188 and Section 173 of the FAA Reauthorization Act of 2018, evaluating alternative noise metrics to the current Day-Night Level (DNL) 65 standard. The report reviews the history and definition of DNL, A-weighted metrics, and various acoustic metrics used for community noise exposure assessment and aircraft certification. It also examines the role of noise measurements versus noise modeling and the use of supplemental metrics.